I am writing this on April the 5th, one day after Sir Keir Starmer was elected the new leader of the Labour Party, succeeding Jeremy Corbyn.
I’ve been following the leadership campaign since it begun – and I’m glad to say I was hoping for a Starmer victory all along (the first vote I’ve actually been happy with!). Granted, my deputy pick – Ian Murray – floundered in the results, but I’m sure Angela Rayner will do wonders for the party too.
Starmer announced his cabinet picks today, and they were… surprising. A good amount of the names were unrecognisable, or MPs who didn’t seem to be strong members of the party. Who are these people, what have they achieved and what do they stand for? In this blog, I’ll be covering the three biggest roles (other than leader itself) – two of which went to people I hadn’t heard of prior.
Anneleise Dodds – Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
I’m going to be completely honest here; I’d never heard of this Oxford MP until now. Elected in 2017, after two failed campaigns in 2005 and 2010, Anneleise Dodds is currently the Labour MP for Oxford East. She had also been an MEP from 2014-2017.
She was born in Aberdeen, and studied PPE as a degree, and has a PhD from the London School of Economics, so despite the short tenure as MP, you can see why Starmer elected to pick her as Chancellor.
What this does mean though is long-time Labour personality and Corbyn suck-up John McDonnell is out of a job. This is no surprise, but will certainly change the atmosphere on the front bench.
This was a pretty short entry, largely because I don’t have much to say! I don’t know much about the new Shadow Chancellor, but she’s definitely qualified unlike what many are claiming. Do we have a potential future party leader here? Who knows,
Nick Thomas-Symonds – Shadow Home Secretary
Once again, I hadn’t heard of this MP either. Thomas-Symonds is the Member of Parliament for Torfaen (in Wales) since 2015. Trained in law, Thomas-Symonds has held various Cabinet and important positions in the Labour Party, and across parliament, but never quite a position of this stature. He’s seasoned in political knowledge though, having lectured Politcs & Government at Oxford.
Was he the right choice? I’m not sure. Will he be an improvement over Diane Abbott? I’d be shocked if not – this one can count.
Lisa Nandy – Shadow Foreign Secretary
I have heard of this one, but only because of her Labour leadership campaign. For most, Lisa Nandy was the second choice – those who loved Starmer hated Long-Bailey, and vice versa – so naturally, she fell into the middle. She came last in the contest, with only about 15% of the vote.
One can joke that Starmer might be strategically giving her a post that sends her out the country a lot, which is presumably also why Boris was Theresa May’s foreign secretary. It is unusual for someone who competed for the top job against the winner to be given such a high office, though.
Nandy is the MP for Wigan, and has been since 2010. She co-chaired Owen Smith’s leadership challenge in 2016, and has been a critic of Corbyn. She’s much more centrist than left, perhaps even close to Blair/Brown in some aspects – whether this is a good thing for the party remains to be seen.
Starmer will announce the rest of his minor cabinet roles tomorrow, though I likely won’t write an article about those – but these three surprising frontbench positions warranted the first article on this site.
Stained Glass Politics 